I was skipping around the HBO channels the other night, looking for something to watch before going to sleep. Bill Maher popped up on the screen-- with neo-Nazi publicity hound Milo Yiannopoulos and I quickly moved on to Alien vs. Predator. Until the last few weeks not many Americans knew who Milo Yiannopoulos was. Essentially a social media troll, he tries, tries, tries to be outrageous enough to get famous.
Milo Yiannopoulos speaks on campus in the Mathematics building at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo. (Jeremy Papasso/Daily Camera via AP
LOS ANGELES (REPORT) — Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been disinvited to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference after his attempt to clarify past comments on relationships between boys and older men fell flat with organizers.
Hours later, his publisher cancelled his book “Dangerous,” which had been scheduled to come out in June.
The right-wing activists who vote in the CPAC saw poll-- there were around 3,000 of them this year-- included enough libertarian and Paul family fan boys to give Rand Paul the win (again). He came away with 25.7%. No one is especially impressed-- and no one thinks it means much of anything in terms of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Second place was more interesting-- Koch puppet and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker came in with 21.4%.
Sen. Ernst and CPAC were ready for each otherRepublican politicians-- with great trepidation-- are putting themselves through CPAC again. Awesome for fringe crackpots like Sharon Angle, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert and scammers like Brent Bozell and Donald Trump; less alluring for anyone trying to maintain any semblance of mainstream credibility.
This pathetic mess somehow "forgot" to mention to California progressives that he's been begging the corrupt, anti-working family New Dems to endorse himDr. Ed Hernández, former president of the California Optometric Association, is the state Senator representing the 24th district, which stretches from East L.A. through Monterey Park, Rosemead, and El Monte out to Azusa and Covina.
Always one of the craziest media circuses on the calendar, CPAC opens today at National Harbor, Maryland. Chris Christie waddled up to the podium about an hour late-- after lead-off candidates Ted Cruz, who talked about term, limits, "petrotyrants" (though not the Koch brothers) and abolishing the IRS, and Paul Ryan, who talked about being Irish. Although he conspicuously not invited last year-- too kissy-kissy with the demonized Obama-- the martyrdom of being caught breaking the law has made him a much sought after celebrity in Crazy Conservative World this year.
CPAC hasn't liked Chris Christie. They saw him as too mainstream or even "moderate." Now they see him as a potential cause célèbre that can be turned into a fundraising bonanza for right-wing groups hoping to milk their base of Foxified saps. Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor pointed out that right-wingers from Paul Ryan and Bobby Jindal to Hate Talk Radio sociopaths Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, who haven't appreciated Christie 'til now, are part of his cheering squad.
